#this is supposed to take place in the 80s-early 90s

[maybe-boys-do-love]

Peaceful Property went ahead and picked one of my special interests to explore this week. For queer history nerds like me, some of the most prominent questions in the field are whether and how to connect to those in the past who did not have the same conditions and language for queerness as we do in the present.* Forcebook gave us two characters, Phoom and Vicha, who failed to name or live their queer feelings in the past. Instead, they had queer gestures to offer across time. What do these queer gestures and failures offer to the main conflict between Peach and Home, and what do they offer to us as an audience debating whether Peaceful Property is a BL or queer-baiting?

That ghost story spanned and blurred time into a time immemorial. Using the venue of Thai traditional dancing gave the story a sense of deep Thai history and traditions that are kept up to the present, while Phoom's home indicated early twentieth century Western influences, and a television (alongside Phoom's age in the modern-day setting) suggested the beginning of the global information age of the 80s or 90s. Then Force and Book, finally getting the opportunity to show their true acting capacities (let Force be as queer, emotive, and silly as he is in his interviews, GMMTV!!!), took us on a heart-shattering journey that blended those eras together.

In front of the TV, Vicha teaches Phoom the gesture for love before they kiss. It's not a pronouncement, and no one's recording. It's just a movement between two men tucked away in a private place. Vicha records later, but he doesn't put it into words. He carves tallies into a tree waiting for Phoom to return. Then Phoom does, but he's so cold toward Vicha that the latter can't even bear to look as Phoom tries to explain his sadness through dance. Phoom's mother is looking on as Phoom repeats the the move to signify "saddened," in the face of the instructor's demands for "happy."

The dance is interspersed with scenes of Phoom's mother berating him for being "gay"--she uses the English word! and as @absolutebl explains that's important!--across a locked palatial door as Phoom collapses in tears. Edit: @lurkingteapot giving me the Thai language lesson in the notes to explain, “Phoom's mother does not use the English word for gay. she says มีลูกผิดเพศอย่างแก mii lûuk pìt pêet yâang gɛɛ, where the gɛɛ is a familiar term for "you" -- "to have a child who gets gender wrong, like you!" ("gets gender wrong" as in, directs affections/attraction at the wrong gender).”

With just one chance to return to the dance studio that she believes to be the cause of his queerness, all Phoom can do is subtly cue Vicha about his queer experiences through dance. Jose Esteban Munoz says in Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity,

"Queer dance is hard to catch, and it is meant to be hard to catch--it is supposed to slip through the fingers and comprehension of those who would use knowledge against us. But it matters and takes on a vast material weight for those of us who perform or draw important sustenance from performance. Rather than dematerialize, dance rematerializes. Dance, like energy, never disappears; it is simply transformed. Queer dance, after the live act, does not just expire. The ephemeral does not equal unmateriality. It is more nearly about another understanding of what matters. It matters to get lost in dance or to use dance to get lost: lost from the evidentiary logic of heterosexuality.

Phoom's mom, the representative of compulsory heterosexuality, watches on, but she either can't see the coded evidence, or she recognizes its ephemerality and bears it knowing its lack of impact. Even then, she ends Phoom's dance before Vicha can look up and see the queerness that might affirm his own queer feelings. Phoom fails to live as a representative of queerness, unable to resist the pressures of heterosexuality.

With Phoom locked away, Vicha can't bear the loneliness. Queer suicidality has been haunting Peaceful Properties since the first episode, and the reason Peach keeps his blinds closed in his apartment returned this episode if we didn't recall. But we've had other subtle references, too. Vicha's death, though, was visceral and vivid as he slit his wrists with the same tool he used to count down the days until the return of the person who could affirm his queer feelings. Then, he documented his feeling in poetry with blood. While, Phoom failed to materialize his queerness for others, Vicha could only materialize his queerness through tragedy.

Much of queer history and fiction has focused on these tragic queer figures. In fact, they've been quite productive political tools for advancing queer goals. In the past ten years or so, the culture has turned on tragic queer figures and their narratives, though. Emotionally, I feel like that's for the better, but there's a fine line I'm always attentive to between welcoming empowering histories and turning our backs on those who don't or can't achieve them. It's also a fine line between welcoming ensured happy endings for queer characters and refusing to engage with those creators past and present who use other narrative tools to explore queer themes.

Relatedly, using a branded pairing for Peaceful Property while not advertising it as a BL, nor committing to that status even by episode 7, seems intentionally designed to invite the conversations about whether its queer-baiting or a BL. It feels so old-school to engage in the kind of queer subtext reading that much of the fandom is doing currently. Sure, people do fantastically detailed metas about body language, color theory, and everything else you can think of for BL series. When queerness is not a given, however, the analysis of queer subtext serves the purpose of liberating the characters and the text from the binds and blinds of an otherwise heterosexual context.

There's a generosity in that work. It certainly can't erase the failures to fully live-out one's queerness, nor the problems and behavior that suffering and suppression can lead one to commit. However, sometimes you absolve people out of empathy rather than anything they do to make-up for their harm and futility. Sometimes people are transformed by that initial love, mercy, or understanding, whatever you want to call it, like the ghosts in the series finally being seen. The basic tenets of humanism, a philosophy so disruptive to the rigid class structures the show's simultaneously exploring, and Buddhism, the Thai beliefs which the show's been explicitly exorcising the ghosts with, depend on understanding people at that level, beneath the trappings of social status, symbols of wealth, and even language.

Peaceful Property has taken us on the journey for Home and Peach to understand each other at this level. They, like the audience, have been looking beneath the cloaks of class and patriarchal defensiveness that separate them for the meaningful ephemeral queer gestures that can offer them release from the endless cycles of grief and guilt they're stuck in. That the series keeps finding ways to find peace for these ghosts suggests that the we'll also find peace and love from the alienation haunting Peach and Home. They just need each other to perform that exorcism on their hearts.

*Thailand, specifically, is unique site for queer historians and anthropologists--like director P'Jojo!--because of this question. Its one of the few places that maintained a non-binary gender system into the present, whereas many others were suppressed by Christian colonial law or influence.

[mochamadeleines]

Sins, Two Through Four <3

Javi doesnt do good girls. Literally and figuratively.

Theyre nice, sure. Honeyed voices and beautiful eyes. But theyre just not for him. He prefers to stick with what he knows best. Messy, broken, women who are looking to distract themselves with him and his body. Sharp eyes topped with heavy eyeliner and eyeshadow. Women who know what to do with him.

Hes been soiled by the world, therefore belongs with others whove met the same fate. But, hes okay with that. (3.3k words)

tags!! 18+ javier peña x reader ! one shot! inoccent reader i guess?, no set era just vaguely somewhere in the late 80s early 90s :p, since its like entirely from his perspective hes only referred to as Javi and not javier sorry if that bothers u </3, corruption, religious allegories, steve and connie r there for five seconds, dubious I suppose cuz they be drinking, smut but its not like Good and its also there for about five second lolol.., p in v sex, blow jobs, rough sex, lots of depressing internal dialogue for javi Uhhhhhh, Sus thoughts abt causing harm to u I GUESS?? Toxic javi of course lol. kinda bad boy x good girl concept here but he wants to make u WORSE. mannn idk, some dom/sub dynamics if u squinttt

authors notes!! hi! Ok my first Javi fic LOOOOL been binging narcos and i had to take a break from my joel fic in the works to write this shit. I SPENT THE ENTIRE DAY PUMPING THIS OUT AHHHHH Beinf as that ive been working on it For One whole day it may not b my best work but i still had fun!! i kinda like the religious allegories Uhh IM NOT RELIGIOUS OR SCHOLARYLY OR ANYTHING so take whatever i reference with a grain of artsy salt.. enjoy!!!!

Javi doesnt do good girls. Literally and figuratively.

Theyre nice, sure. Honeyed voices and beautiful eyes. But theyre just not for him. He prefers to stick with what he knows best. Messy, broken, women who are looking to distract themselves with him and his body. Sharp eyes topped with heavy eyeliner and eyeshadow. Women who know what to do with him.

Hes been soiled by the world, therefore belongs with others whove met the same fate. But, hes okay with that. 

That brings him to now, at this crowded bar with Steve, later Connie. And you, he guesses. Hes never met you but hes heard of you. Tonight youre tagging along so thats that.

Anyways, Steve is updating him on his daughter and something else about enrolling her in private school but New York City is wildly expensive. Javis caught the eye of a pretty brunette further away from the bar hes sitting at. Shes in a black miniskirt begging to get taken off.

“Stop eye-fuckin’ her, Im talkin’ to you.”

“Relax, Im listening.” Javi takes another drag from his cigarette, tapping away the ash into a tray.”Youre a hard worker, Im sure you can find a way to move up and earn a little more for Olivias private schooling.”

Steve sighs, nursing his beer as he thinks. “Maybe. Just dont wanna be away from her more than i have to be.”

“Mm.”

The brunette beckons him over, and Javi is already sliding off the stool to meet her. “Ill be r-”

“Steve!” 

Connie is here, and so is her-

Friend? 

Youre wearing a baby blue slip with sheer white tights and a thin, white cardigan. Youre pretty. Its only when you introduce yourself and he meets your eyes that hes sure. Youre good. And he doesnt do good. Youre not his type, Javi decides. Lame.

He moves down a seat so you can sit next to Connie whos also next to Steve, and you seem nervous. He gets the feeling you dont come out to places like this a lot. Its too.. Grungy. People smoke inside and get crazy drunk and dance. Probably not your speed. Youre easy to read.

Steve, “Remind me again how you know each other?”

“From work! Shes a nurse.” Connie smiles at Steve first, and then to you. A nurse, of course. Because youre good and its practically oozing off of you. Maybe hes wrong. He hopes hes wrong. Only because youre so pretty, with pretty pink blush and lipgloss. 

You now, “I work in pediatrics.”

You work with children? Jesus christ.

You help people- help your community and take care of children. Javi had to watch children die, over and over, all too complicit each time it happens. No, youre not his type. Hes not into angels. Javi is far from holy and isnt about to desecrate you.

Then there's this feeling that starts to stir in his gut. An ugly feeling that wants to scratch through flesh and bone to get out.  He takes the final drag of his cigarette before smushing it into the ashtray. Why do you bother him so much? Maybe its because upon your arrival that pretty brunette he was eyeing disappeared. A real shame.

But youre here, and your breasts are softly spilling over the neckline of your dress, and while the length is enough to cover your ass when youre standing, the way it looks while youre sitting is a whole different story. Youre good eye candy. Glass half full thinking.

He clears his throat. “How long-” 

The bartender interrupts with a pearly smile. Hes asking if you want anything and hes obviously into you. Annoyingly so.

While youre ordering, Steve and Connie walk away to dance, and Connie stops by Javi, dipping her head to his ear. “Please, please dont fuck my friend.”

Ironic.

“Dont worry,” He leans his elbow on the counter, finishing the rest of his whiskey. “Shes not my type. Go have fun.”

You order three shots of vodka and apple juice. Its a little cute the way you hold your nose while you down each shot and chase it with some juice. Javis on his next glass of whiskey, watching how some of your drink rolls down your collar bone and into the valley of your breasts.

The sight of you is downright sinful. Its not fair.

“You need another shot or are you good now?”

Youre laughing, batting your hand dismissively. “No, No. Im good. I hate alcohol so I wanted to get this part over with and loosen up a little.”

“You dont have to drink it if you dont want to.”

“I like being drunk, just not drinking.”

“Fair enough.”

You fold your hands in your lap, and spin your seat side to side. “You were asking me something earlier?”

“How long have you been a nurse?”

“Three years now. I was working at a different hospital until recently. Thats how I met Connie.”

“Ah.”

“And you? What do you do?”

Javi lets the silence linger a bit. Fuck it. “Uh, CIA- but im retired now.”

“Oh- Yes! Right! Connie- She told me. Im sorry, you probably dont wanna talk about it.”

This is what makes his gums start itching. Most women- who are just as tragic as him- just bat their lashes and tell him its sexy he works for the government.

But you- Youre good. So you actually care about how hes feeling, and arent just trying to fuck him. Maybe that could change?- Ugh- No- no. Just no. Youll be ruined. Youd get dirty and thatd weigh him down like everything else does. Plus, Connie told him not to.

“Um. Have you done anything fun recently? Aside from all that?” Cute how you try to change the subject to spare his feelings.

Javi breaks open a new pack of cigarettes, slipping one out and putting it between his lips, then flicks his lighter on. Once, twice. A fifth time. No dice. The fucking thing ran out fluid. 

“Fuck,” He grumbles.

“Ah! Hold on!”

An eyebrow is raised.

You dig through your purse, and pull out a disposable lighter. You thumb the sparkwheel a couple times to get the flame going.

“Do you mind?”

Javi hums no and leans forward. You do too, cupping your hand over the flame in case it goes out. It lights, and he gets a good drag in.

“Thank you.”

“Youre welcome.” And youre smiling again and Javi wants to shake you around and see where youre hiding your halo. Hes good at getting information out of people. He could get you to confess.

“Any reason you carry around a lighter?”

“Uhh. For medicinal purposes.”

“Cheeky.”

You spin in your chair once, all the way around then wobble when you stop. Javi shoots his arm out to grab yours and keep you steady. 

“Careful.” 

“Thanks.” A short breath. “Still think I need another shot?”

Javi smirks. “Oh, definitely.”

And youre ordering two shots. Bold.

“To answer your question, I havent done any fun things, no- Oh actually, you know what? I went to the art museum the other day.”

“The MET?”

“Mhm.” 

“I went there a few months ago! Its beautiful isnt it? Do you have a favorite exhibit?”

“Probably European sculptures. The ones under the skylights were my favorite.”

“Yeah, those are beautiful.” You look off, dreamy. 

Youre a childrens nurse, youre bad at drinking, you like art, and Javier feels sick just sitting next to you. Theres so much ugly out there, hes sure youre aware, and yet youre as bright as ever infront of him. Youd probably fit right in with The Triumph of the Church. 

 Theres only one word that can describe that ugly feeling swirling in him. 

Envy. He wishes he could be as untouchable as you feel right now.

Theres a push and pull. He wants to taste your lips and roll up your dress and roughen you up, but he cant- he shouldnt. You dont deserve to get felt up by someone so unclean.

And yet,

Your beautiful smile, one that always reaches your eyes, and your precious laugh, and the way youve been nervously playing with your hands this entire time makes him want to break you. To rip those wings out and keep you from flying. 

Javi really is devilish.

“Okay, shot time!” You push one of the glasses towards him. 

“Im not taking a shot,” He takes another puff from the cigarette, then lets it rest on the ashtray.

“C’mon, Javier! Pleeeeeaaaase?” 

“Javi.” He emphasizes.

“Okay.” You nod, “Javi, please?”

“Fine.”

Alright, alright. It didnt take much, but to be fair ‘please’ and ‘Javi’ just sound so good together when you say it. 

Clink! 

You count to three, and together you take the shot. Javi only grimaces at the taste and youre scrambling for the juice after letting go of your nose. Youre so damn messy about it too. Javi gets the bartender to get some napkins.

“I think I'm done,” You cough.

“I think youre done too.” He smiles, “Do you normally spill your drinks on yourself?” 

You patiently hold still while Javi wipes down your mouth, then your chin, then your collarbone, careful to not get too close to your chest. He eyes the dainty necklace that carries your first name initial. 

“Noooo, it all just happens so fast, you know? Oh! And thank you for cleaning me up.” Youre smacking your lips together, “Ah shit, my gloss.” 

“Yeah, looks like you ate it all in the chaos.” He glances over at the four shot glasses, all stained.

You groan after digging through your purse. “Fuck, I left my compact at home.”

“Being a girl seems hard.”

“It is.” You sigh, albeit dramatic. “Ill be back.”

You slide off the stool and almost eat shit actually. At least Javi is there to catch you. Again. This might be a recurring theme tonight considering how many drinks you had. Must be a lightweight.

“Im sorry- Fuck, Im so sorry,” Youre laughing again, and it gets a laugh out of him too. Back on the stool you go.

“If you fall again Im not gonna catch you.”

“Thats okay, I wouldnt catch me either.” 

Javi thinks for a moment, curious. 

“I could, yknow, put the gloss on you. If you want.”

“Really? Youd do that?”

Your eyes are big and bright, lashes accentuated by your mascara. The way you look at him makes him feel oddly special. Its not sultry, or wanting. You have this natural allure to you. Angelic. That alone makes him want to touch you again. To yank you down from the clouds.

“Yeah, gimmie the gloss.”

You put it in his palm and lean towards him. Javi messes with the applicator, listening to the squish of product inside the tube. Seems easy enough.

Javi situates himself more comfortably in the chair, then holds your chin as he applies it. Youre well behaved the entire time, like he expected, except for the fact that you lost your balance again and gripped onto his thigh to keep you from falling. He clears his throat. There are blaring alarms in his head telling him to put distance between you both.

“Sorry.”

“Its alright. I dont mind.”

You swallow nervously. Any angel would be nervous if they were this close to an agent of hell. Get it? Agent?

Javi tucks away the fly aways first. The applicator swipes across your bottom lip, and hes squinting at the little sparkles in the gloss. Its a nice touch. His thumb rubs away any excess to keep it neat.

“Good job for not falling again.” 

“I had some help.” And youre both grinning now.

“Mkay, all done.” 

You smack your lips, nodding. “Thank you.”

This is the moment where Javi should let you go. He should excuse himself and find someone who isnt you, someone whos filthy just like him, and have them instead.

You tilt your head in his palm, letting him cradle your face.

But youre so pretty, and youre so sweet, and youre right there. 

That feeling from earlier is bubbling up again, the need to ruin you. You might look prettier covered in bite marks and sweat, with your hair messed up and your recently applied gloss all gone. Again. 

He shouldnt.

But then again, what are sinners even good for if not this? Converting others and carrying on the missions of the Devil himself, you know, the works. Fuck, its not like he wasnt doing it anyways. Shout out to the government.

Javi observes you, trying to make a decision. “Hey,” 

“Hiii.” 

“Can I take you home?” 

Its was easy, and you were so well behaved about it too. You did a little nervous yapping on the way to his apartment but it was cute. He learned you had a pet cat, and he tells you about the dog he grew up with. You talk about the shitty weather recently and Javi tells you he got rained on and slipped going up the stairs. It settles your nerves. Good. His phone keeps ringing in the glove compartment, but he just tells you to ignore it. Steve no doubt.

He makes sure to hold your hand on the way up to his apartment, giving it a squeeze before he lets go to open the door.

Javi’s heart never usually pounds this hard bringing any woman to his place, and its downright sinnister how excited he is. 

When the door closes, you both leave your shoes at the door. 

“Want anything? I dont have any apple juice but I can give you orange juice? Water if you want that instead?” 

“Orange juice sounds good.”

You begin to linger about his living room. Youre probably getting a feel for how impersonal it all is. Plain. His room is a bit more interesting, at least. 

Javi hands you the glass and shucks off his leather jacket, draping it over one of the kitchen chairs.

The first time he kisses you, is while walking through to the entrance of his bedroom. One hand gripping your hip and the other cradling the back of your head. He swallows ever whimper, every sigh, every squeak until the back of his knees hit the edge of the mattress. Javi pulls away, watching the string of spit snap and cling to your bottom lip.

“Are you good at following directions?”

“Yes-Yes. I am.” You choke out.

Now sat on the bed, “Great. On your knees then.” 

Tonight, youre going to pray. Youre going to sing.

You hesitate to get down, but do it with no complaints. Javi stretches over to the bedside table, grabbing a spare pack of cigarettes and lighter. 

Your eyes are on him, patiently waiting for another command. 

He continues to smoke at a leisurely pace, petting your head and caressing the apples of your cheeks. Youre leaning into his hand affectionately again.

Youre hit with some of the excess smoke he breathes out, coughing a bit. 

“Javi-”

“No more talking. Understand?”

A beat passes, and you nod again, only shuffling forward to rest your head on the inside of his thigh. Javi taps away the ash.

“Good girl.”

You stay down there for a little while, only squirming and wiggling to relieve the soreness settling into your knees. You dont talk, you dont whine, you dont go grabbing at him. You stay put because he didnt tell you to do anything else. Youre good. Angels are loyal to a fault.

When you do get a command, youre perking up like a dog. Cute. Javis telling you to take his cock out.

You go for it, and he tuts at you. “Do it slow.”

And so, youre doing it slowly now, pulling out the leather from under the buckle, opening it up and then popping open the button to his jeans. Your lips press into a thin line, looking up at him for reassurance.

“Go on.”

His zipper is pulled down at a snails pace, and your eyes widen at the lack of underwear. No surprise there. Javi sighs when you take him your hand. 

He lets you feel him up curiously, your thumb wisping over his flushed tip, smearing along the white beads gathering there. 

“Put it in your mouth.”

You stiffen, unsure. Javis reminded that youre good and you probably dont do this kind of thing a lot. 

“Its not hard, nena. Promise. Want me to teach you?”

Youre nodding now, more eagerly.

“Start by kissing it.”

Tentatively, you kiss starting from the bottom up- That much you know how to do- So its a good start. He sighs out the last bit of smoke and stretches over to the bedside again to put out the cigarette. 

After kissing, youre licking, and after licking, youre finally trying to swallow him. He groans, holding the back of your head and coaxing you to take more.

You gag, backing out to catch your breath then taking him in again.

“Jus’ like that- Fuck-”

And somehow the slight inexperience gives you the upperhand. You want to be good for him, and your  clumsy hands are doing as much as they can to make up for your lack of deep-throating capabilities.

Its when you suck harshly on the head that he hunches forward with a gasp. “Yeah-Yes.”

You do it again, and again, and hes so fucking close now but he stops you. Not yet.

“You did good.” Javi reassures you. “Get up.”

You wobble up onto your feet and hes pulling you into a kiss, hands exploring you all over with urgency. He needs it now, to do what he wanted to do at the bar when he first started talking to you. He needs to drag you down with him.

Javi pulls your cardigan off, and then your dress, and as more layers of your clothing come off the more he cant wait. Youre moaning under his tongue, only squirming when he nips at the flesh of your torso, leaving a trail of blossoming bruises in his wake. He tells you to lay down and you follow accordingly. 

Javi kisses up your stomach, and the junction between your neck and shoulder. You almost speak, almost. And it has his dick harder than he thought it could get. Youre still obeying. Fucking incredible.

He pulls your hips forward, making you whimper. A finger traces through your folds, and he practically gushes with pride just feeling what hes done to you so far. He hasnt even gotten to the best part.

“Talk to me,”

Youre babbling now, “K-Keep touching me- Dont stop. Please, Javi.” There it is again. ‘Please’ and ‘Javi’. He cant say no to someone whos been so reverent thus far.

He rewards you by tracing soft circles around your clit, watching the way your abdomen flexes at the pressure. The combination of nervousness and arousal has your thighs quaking around his forearm. You give in so easy. 

Javi tells you to lay on your stomach, Then, hes pressing kisses up your spine to soothe you. To sedate you. 

You practically crumble when his cock reaches all the way inside you. This is it. Hes going to rip those obnoxious fucking wings out of your back.

“Javi,” You wheeze, clawing at the sheets. His hand sits on the nape of your neck to keep you pinned down. Javi grunts, doubling forward over your back. Its almost like hes punishing your guts just because youre you. 

He grabs your wrists instead, pulling them behind your back and anchoring himself with one hand. The other curls into your hair, yanking your head up from the pillow you covered in drool. 

You sob, trembling when Javi buries himself to the hilt. Hes panting over your neck like a dog, licking and nipping there like one too.

“Thank you,” You sniffle, twisting your neck to get a glimpse of him. Your mascaras running down your face. Humble, even in the face of your own sacrilege. 

Javi shushes you with a sloppy kiss. Hell only accept your thanks when hes finally run you dry.

Tonight is the night you fell from grace. All because of him.

[schrijverr]

Honestly, I'm a bit in tears, thinking about Jonathan going on to be a famous photographer, bringing out a book of his early work (late 80s/early 90s) in, like, the 2010s or something and it's just full of queer joy and the queerplatonic family they all made together with the Upside Down gang.

Like it starts with Steve giving Robin a piggy back ride, both laughing their asses off. It's 1989, they had just moved to the big city bc most of the kids had graduated. It's late at night and they went to a Rocky Horror screening. Robin is dressed as Brad, Steve as Janet.

There's a full spread of Eddie on stage, he's shirtless save for a leather harness, sweaty and alive, hankerchief hanging out of his pocket. The next page is him with Steve is his normal clothes in his lap, the rest of the band and Robin around them, all stuffed in a booth in a diner. Nancy and Argyle hadn't been able to make it, but that's okay. It was Coroded Coffin's first big gig.

Argyle has a page dedicaded to him, most of them in the early mornings, sharing the bed with Nancy, the place where Jonathan is supposed to be obvious.

One is Jonathan's favorite, Eddie and Argyle are sharing a joint. They're on the roof, Eddie is gesturing with one hand, holding the joint Argyle is taking a hit from in his other hand. They often had these late nights on the roof, before their lives took off, when insomnia got too band and company was needed.

Nancy and Robin are pictured, they're kissing. They had a short fling in 1987, before Nancy got back with Jonathan and Argyle, and Robin found her current wife.

The wife, back then a girlfriend, is more femme than Robin and there are pictures of their 'wedding'. It wasn't legal, but they didn't care. Robin wore a suit, her wife a dress. There is one page dedicated to the most traditional wedding pictures they took as a joke.

Then the following pictures are more like them, posing with their collection of garden gnomes and taking goofy pictures with everyone, as well as more serious ones.

Jonathan's favorites are the one where Steve is dancing with Robin, her second dance, both having been disowned by their parents. It's obvious they're both crying. The other one is Robin covered in lipstickstains, both her and her wife grinning like madmen, clearly a little tipsy.

There are also pictures from that first summer after Hawkins split open. Nancy on Argyle's shoulders, Steve's on Eddie's, the four of them fighting in the quarry. Robin floating nearby on a floaty along with Max. In the background the boys are jumping down, only held in posed in the air like that by El, who had taken an interest in photography after she realized how easy it was to forget.

There is also thanksgiving at the Hopper-Byers, 1986. Murray is there as well and they're all pushed together on the table, far more people than they thought would survive. Everyone is laughing, because Jonathan is sprawled over Agryle, having tripped in his haste to get seated for the timer.

It's the intimate domesticity that Jonathan has gotten good at capturing that makes the book pop.

Steve, dead asleep, head resting on Eddie's chest, legs thrown over Robin's lap. Eddie is pressing a kiss onto his forehead, Robin is holding his hand. The photo is called: Nightmares

A picture taken by El is in there as well, properly credited. It was taken when visiting Nancy, Argyle and Jonathan in 1991, the three of them are all half asleep, sitting at the table, all wrapped up together, but doing their own thing. Nancy is making notes on a notepad, Jonathan is rolling film and Argyle is doing the crossword in the paper.

There is also one of Coroded Coffin sitting around, crammed into the tiny apartment Eddie, Robin and Steve shared when they first moved out to the big city. They're writing lyrics, obviously mid argument about something. What is noteble is Steve in the background, leaning against the doorframe, looking very fond, dishtowel slung over his shoulders.

Naturally there is also one with all the kids around the table, dice scattered about, Eddie in the midst of a dramatic narration, seemingly oblivious to Steve, smiling dopily and nearly sleep, from where he is draped over Eddie's lap.

There are also pictures of Robin painting Steve's nails, because while Steve knew he'd had to take it off before work, he likes the way it looks.

As well as Steve doing Eddie's eyeliner, because Eddie used to be baby about it, before he got used to doing it before shows.

Will is also in there, alseep in the backseat with Mike, draped over the other guy. They're both in the remnants of cosplay, on the way back from a convention.

All the kids are, though they feature less, having been younger and in different phases of life.

There is a picture of Max and El asleep in Max's dorm when she went to college. Her skateboard is leaning against the wall along with her crutches. Max's hands are in El's hair, it's half braided like they fell asleep before finishing it.

Lucas is pictured with Steve, sweating on a basketball court, what is more obvious is Eddie and Max in the foreground. They're both leaning on their knees, oggling the two players. Max's eyes peer out through thick lenses, but that doesn't hide the moon eyed expression that matches Eddie's.

Another intimate moment that Jonathan captured was Steve, Eddie and Dustin, the three of them in front of a mirror, shaving. Eddie is just dry shaving, but Steve and Dustin both have foam beards, by the looks of it, Steve is teaching Dustin how to shave.

There are also just a few pages dedicated to cheek kisses, both platonic and romatic. They have big grins, soft looks, tears and blood in them. All of them look meant.

One double page is Argyle, Eddie, Nancy, Robin and Steve painting protest signs. There is laughter, but a somber atmosphere too. A heartbreaking point in history to be alive.

The next page is Eddie, Steve and Nancy, the three of them black eyes, Steve even missing a tooth. They're on the steps of a police station, Eddie is giving it the finger, his other arm slung around Steve. Nancy is getting checked over by Agryle, looking determined. Robin is running towards Steve.

Furthermore, it's filled to the brim with pictures of them doing dishes, playing games, backstage with Eddie, Nancy interviewing leather daddies at pride, hands twined together on the dashboard.

Nancy has provided the writing, telling their stories of those times. They might not be able to say it all, but they can say more than back then and their stories deserve a space too. Their interlinked dynamics, their ups, their downs. The family they built together.

Just Jonathan's queer photography of the late 80s/early 90s y'all.

On AO3

[upthewitchypunx]

Help! Someone is making a punk movie based on the 1995 Rancid album ... And Out Come The Wolves. It's supposed to be about the East Bay but there's a casting call here in Portland.

I was a punk in Salt Lake City and remember the casting call for SLC Punk. It was done on the local alternative radio station and they told people to show up dressed like punks so a bunch of people showed up dressed as 90s punks for a movie set in the 80s. Also some of the most obnoxious fashion punks.

The annoying thing was after I moved from Utah in 99 everyone always asked how accurate it was. I was aware of that scene, but only the tail end of the 80s, was more into the goth scene and early 90s punk in SLC.

The most frustrating thing is that movie is the legacy for all the things we real Salt Lake punks later built, a movie about selling out not about building community or taking punk ideas into other areas of life.

There are a few things like the token Mormon in your group, beer runs to Wyoming, and a few others things I have probably forgot. It was a strange place to grow up non-Mormon and all the weirdos stuck together.

So, anyway, my little sister who I was taking to shows when she was 12 says she wants to be an extra and is trying to get me to be one too. I guess I can wear my Discount shirt and Tilt jacket? But there's no way in hell I'm wearing giant pants again.

I have a deep respect for the 80s and 90s East Bay scene. Not just the music but the whole culture of activism, zines, culture, and The Gilman St Project has so much to do with that. I just don't know how they keep that integrity.

[moralesmilesanhour]

if you believe in me - 04.2

summary: a very brief intermission. between aaron and his father, miles wonders who he takes after more. wc: 1.5k a/n: this chapter is me trying to get back into the swing of things before the next major plot point (!!!) so this might feel a little slower and more introspective. thanks for reading! (reblog with ur favorite comic or manga if u want idk) taglist: @shuna-boin @aloraangelix @vhstown @sillykirb @proudgojofucker @weirdducky17 @milesandcorysupermacy prev. next

BOOM!

Miles hits the ground shoulder-first with a dull thud, the storage building bursting into flames behind him.

I’m gonna feel that one later, he thinks as he rolls to his feet and back into a sprint. But Oscorp’s gonna feel it, too.

With a leap and a shot of his grappling hook, it’s not long before he’s back on the sidewalk, with Aaron waiting around the corner. The older man has completely retired the Prowler suit now.

“Not bad for your first solo run,” he nods. “Could still be a lil’ quicker, but you’ll pick it up.”

Miles twists the joints of his metal claws. The steel is still shiny and new, save for a bit of soot from the explosion. The purple glow disappears as they power down with a quiet whir and detach to reveal the human flesh underneath. They work like a charm so far.

It’s been two weeks, but he hasn’t gotten to use them - Aaron has yet to send him on a mission where he’d have to. He wants to ask his uncle about it, ask why he let him do all that welding and tinkering if the claws were just for show. But Miles knows that if he does, the man’s brows would furrow and he’d get a stern speech about not getting too eager about that sort of thing. And he’d be right. 

So, like every other night, Miles says nothing but “thanks��.

“And what’s this one about?” 

You pointed at a comic sitting on the far side of Miles’ bed. On the cover stood a man wearing what looked like some imagined version of an “African” headdress. He was shirtless and dressed in nothing but shorts and brightly-colored boots, like the costume of a wrestler. The upper half of his face was obscured by a mask with white eyes tied around his head. The flat colors and dark lines make it look old, likely from the 80s or early 90s. Above the man on the cover was the title in bold graphic font: Anansi.

“You don’t know ‘Anansi’?” Miles asked with wide eyes before shaking his head. “Nah, we gotta fix that.”

He threw what he was reading aside, hovering his hand over the pile of comics until he located the very first issue. 

“So Anansi is like, this spider that gets turned into a human who has the abilities of a spider. Y’know, climbing up walls and shit.”

“Does he shoot webs out of his ass?”

“That’s not how that works, and no. Anyway, he’s got spider powers and he beats the bad guys by being a trickster instead of just brute force.”

You took the comic from him and began leafing through the worn pages, frankly more interested in the art than the plot. The sharp lines and crosshatching remind you of Miles’ sketches. You turned to Miles and held it up once you were finished looking at it.

“Can I borrow it?” 

There’s a shadow of uncertainty that crosses his face for a moment as you await his answer. 

“Mmm…I dunno. I’ve had that thing since I was ten. You gonna be careful with it?”

You place a hand over your heart. 

“Promise.”

He snorts, “Don’t make promises you can’t keep. I’ll let you have it for a week, sound good?”

“Good.”

Miles remembers that he’s supposed to ask for his comic back on the way home, the two metal claws tucked safely into his backpack.

He sneaks a glance at his uncle, and tries to copy his stride when he walks. It looks easy, but there’s a rhythm to it. Miles keeps his gaze low, but his steps lively. The key is not to show the sweat, as they say. All of one’s effort goes into making it look like there’s no effort at all. 

Aaron looks over at his nephew, and chuckles.

“Remind me of your old man when you walk like that,” he says. 

Miles grins good-naturedly. Guess the sweat shows. But it’s fine, for now.

“What’s that mean?”

“When we was young, we used to watch the older kids walk out the corner store and try to copy ‘em. The way your pops did it…”

The man’s shoulders shook with laughter at the memory.

“He kinda looked like, like he was marching almost. Just stomping down that sidewalk!”

Aaron began to demonstrate, making his steps quicker and heavier.

“I look like that?” 

Miles wrinkled his nose and began to tone down his swaying.

“Exactly like that. Shit’s kinda amazing, really. Genetics.”

“I don’t think that’s how genetics work.”

“Oh yeah?” Aaron raised an eyebrow. “Then how come I got you stealing like my pops and me, and in my colors?”

Miles laughed, “But this is good stealing!”

“You got a point there.”

Aaron lifted his gaze upward towards the skyline. The moon was out in full tonight.

“Did y’all make good money, at least?”

“Sure did. Sometimes it was the only money that came in, that’s why we ain’t stop.”

There’s a beat of silence. Miles pats his left pocket to make sure the wad of cash is still there, and wonders if his uncle had to do the same thing, or if he kept it in a fanny pack or briefcase.

“So what made you finally give it up?”

“Oh, that one’s easy. Jeff did it for your mom. Hard to keep secrets with a baby on the way.”

Miles tried to picture a younger version of his father – less facial hair, no eye bags, better eyesight, probably – looking a pregnant Rio in the eye as she broke the news. He looks into her gentle face and…yes, there. Right there is when he decides it’s over. 

Even without the whole parenting thing, it probably killed him inside to have to lie to her every night about where he’s been. Miles gets it.

“What about you?”

Aaron shrugged.

“Couldn’t leave my nephew hanging.”

He had knocked on Miles’ door after a few weeks of radio silence and found the kid lying in bed, surrounded by dirty clothes and snack wrappers. The room smelt of stale sweat, the clothes piled up on the floor impossible to get through, so Aaron elected to stand just outside.

Miles looked up, and suddenly the man understood what had Rio so frantic on the phone. 

The boy’s gaze was…vacant. Like he was looking through him, at something far off in the distance. There were no words comforting enough to turn the lights back on behind those eyes. So Aaron had done the next best thing:

“Go wash up, we goin’ out.”

Miles doesn’t remember it that way. He hardly remembers anything from that period of time between the funeral and his uncle barging into his room. Just a long stretch of gray, and then the door cracks open, then he’s in the shower realizing how long his hair’s gotten, and soon he’s dodging the punching bag in Aaron’s apartment, carrying crates back and forth and maybe blowing some up on occasion. 

He knows in his head that he’s doing this to hurt the pockets of invisible men hiding in their glass skyscrapers and high-rise offices, and he’s as angry at them for sucking the life out of his neighborhood as he’s always been. 

But it had started with the door, cracked open just enough for his uncle’s face to poke through. Otherwise, Miles might’ve been content to lie there and become one with his mattress as he missed another week of school.

He wonders if his father went on those runs because he, too, looked into his future and hadn’t the slightest idea as to what he was looking at. 

Miles’ thoughts are interrupted when his phone buzzes in his pocket. You have his Anansi issue.

“So this is all you do in your free time, then? Comics and robots?”

Miles has his nose in another shounen manga.

“Is that a bad thing?”

You remember the helmet, and the parts set in neat little rows. And the tarp in Uncle Aaron’s car.

“Not for the most part. More interesting than what I do.”

Miles finally looks up, and squints. “What do you do in your free time?”

“I braid hair,” you reply with a bit of pride. “Pretty good at it, too.”

“Mm-hm, that’s what they all say before they fuck yo’ shit up,” he jokes, earning an issue of Jujutsu Kaisen to the face.

“Ow!”

“Shut up, with them fuzzy ass braids.”

Miles gasped dramatically. “You said they looked nice!”

“Looked. Past-tense.”

“Chill on me, my mom didn’t have time to re-do ‘em this week.”

Seeing an opportunity, your eyes lit up.

“Ooh, let me–”

“No.”

Miles narrowed his eyes at you.

“Aw, come on! You have so much hair, it could be fun! And you said you’d let me.”

You reached out to touch one of Miles’ overgrown braids but ended up swiping the air as he dodged your hand.

“I said ‘maybe’, and now the answer is no. You’re gonna ‘have fun’ in my hair? Like you ‘had fun’ with my t-shirt? I know you stole it, by the way.”

“I up-cycled it.”

“Cutting a shirt in half is not up-cycling, and you’re not touching my head.”

“You're so mean.”

[earthstellar]

it is time to be old on the internet: TFP Ratchet's hatred of 2010 era human tech is hilarious

every time Ratchet complains about shitty human technology in TFP, it's so funny to me, that shit is so good

because, I mean, I grew up with the first computer in my house being a fucking Tandy 1000, which to be fair wasn't exactly the hottest model even then, but still LMAO

the first modem I ever messed with as a kid was the wood box phone receiver type, the acoustic coupler ones, which was my dad's, and he only had it because his job at a local university meant he could borrow one from their tech lab (so we didn't technically own it)

if I remember correctly, the one we had ran at 300 baud, which was fucking amazing for such a set up at the time. slightly later AOL dial up looked like lightning speed compared to that shit.

my first chat rooms were BBS/Usenet (whenever I could connect) and IRC chats. now everyone has Discord and I still don't understand how that shit works lmao but that's more of a me problem and less of an age problem, I think

we got dial up (in the "modern" sense of it being AOL dial up service with the infamous hell noises) in my household in 1994, back when it was pretty much a brand new thing (at least for AOL), and I remember the Eternal September Usenet rush, lmao

imagine if TFP took place in the 80s/90s, oh my god

(I'm assuming TFP takes place in roughly 2010 because that's when the show premiered, and Miko has some kind of Razr-inspired flip phone, so if we assume it's supposed to be based on the first model of Razr, then at the earliest that places the show in 2004)

Ratchet would have gone completely insane with old school internet capable consumer level human tech

Ratchet: "How do I look at photos on this monitor?"

80s Raf: "what"

Ratchet: "what"

oh god now I want an 80s/90s TFP AU so fucking bad. imagine 80s Raf. it's so good

oh god, IMAGINE 90s RAF. just getting traumatised by terrifying shitty mid-90s FMV horror games. this poor boy. but imagine his hype when the PS1 would come out in the USA in 1995. the hype would be so fucking real. lmao

also for those of you who are Younger and Blessed With Good Internet From An Early Age, if you want a good idea of old school internet shit, go ahead and watch WarGames (1983) and look up 2600 Magazine and Mondo 2000 if you don't already know about those.

(personally I consider WarGames and Hackers (1995) to be the two best simultaneously dumbest and best movie depictions of computer bullshit in their respective eras, although Hackers was more of a thing that informed cyber culture after it released rather than reflecting actual hacker culture as it was at that exact time but anyway, please watch them if you have not seen them already, you will love this shit lmao)

I assume almost all of you already know about this stuff, but just in case, I want to mention it. those two movies are really good. lol

anyway, Ratchet dealing with early internet. early shitty human tech. or at least the 90s shit. imagine Ratchet having to listen to the fucking dial up screeching. the kids having to look through geocities webrings to see if any images of the bots had been leaked on any conspiracy websites. just 10/10 lmaooo

"I hate talking to machines" Ratchet, buddy, you have NO IDEA how bad it could have been!!!

anyway I'm old, I guess that's the point of this post LOL

[lulu2992]

Uncovering the unreleased Far Cry 5 in-game Encyclopedia

The almost complete but unused in-game encyclopedia, reconstructed thanks to the oasisstrings file.

Please note that it’s still cut content, so some information might not be relevant anymore.

You can read the oasisstrings file here. Pictures from this encyclopedia were also extracted and posted by @xbaebsae here.

Part 3: Locations - Whitetail Mountains

PIN-K0 Radar Station

Part of the Pine Line early warning system, the K0 facility was shuttered in the early 90's and left to the elements.

Rattlesnake Trail Bridge

A footbridge along the Makwa Trail, it connects one side of the gorge to the other, like bridges are supposed to do.

Snowshoe Lake

A clear glacial lake high up in the Whitetail Mountains. The water is always near freezing which makes skinny dipping a terrible idea.

Hunter’s Pass Shelter

A remote cabin used as a place to warm up or stay the night by hunters.

Ozhigwan Falls

One of the highest in the area, Ozhigwan falls is one of the natural wonders of the Park.... just don't step too close.

Jefferson Lookout Tower

A watch tower in the middle of the forest, meant to keep an eye out for forest fires or bears... or bears on fire.

Whitetail Park Visitor Center

It's where you'd go to find out what's going on at Whitetail Park, back when it was operational.

Hawkeye Tunnel

A tunnel through the mountain that offers a bird's eye view of the valley below.

Whitetail Park Ranger Station

The Ranger Station that patrols the Whitetail Park to keep it safe back when it was still open.

McKinley Dam

Named after the 25th president of the United States, McKinley Dam is used to regulate water and supply power to the people of Hope County.

Jacob’s Armory

Jacob has converted part of the McKinley Dam power station to be used as sanctuary against the coming apocalypse.

Grand View Hotel

The historic hotel in the Whitetail Mountains it was once the crown jewel of the park. Financial problems shut it down in the 80's. It's been empty ever since.

North Park Entrance

The Northern most entrance to Whitetail Park, abandoned now that the park is closed.

Bo’s Cave

A renown survivalist, Bo lives deep in forest. He is completely off the grid with none of the comforts of modern life.

Cooper Cabin

Another cabin that can be rented at Whitetail Park. Lately has been used as a safe-house by the Whitetail Militia.

Red Tail Cabin

A cabin in Whitetail Park that Eli's Militia use to take refuge from the constant attacks from Jacob's patrols.

F.A.N.G. Center

Friends of the Animals Nursing Grounds is home to Cheeseburger the Bear. Feeding times are 12:00 and 6:00 daily.

St. Francis Veteran's Center

A medical center for returning veterans, St. Francis was shuttered in the 90's when a more modern facility was constructed in a nearby county. When Eden's Gate moved in, Jacob found use for it as a place to indoctrinate his new recruits.

Lansdowne Airstrip

A small airstrip used by the locals for shipping in supplies and sightseeing tours.

Elliot Residence

Home to Rick Elliot and his family, one of the last people to holdout against Jacob and his army.

The Grill Streak

When Chad's diner was burned to the ground he retreated to his food truck. He still works hard to find food for Eli and his Militia.

Breakthrough Camp

A camp where parents sent their rebellious youth in order to get a taste of clean, wholesome outdoor living.

Old Sun Outfitters

The main supply store for camping and survival gear in the area. Seeing the writing on the wall, the owners closed shop and left while they still could.

Baron Lumber Mill

The Baron family lumber mill was already failing financially when Eden's Gate moved in and bought it out.

McNeill Residence

This house once belonged to the McNeill family before they were deemed sinners in the eyes of the cult and were forced to flee.

Linero Building Supplies

A small building supply store that sold lumber and materials. The owners ended up joining Eden's Gate, though not all of them willingly.

Haskell Lookout Tower

A watch tower overlooking the north region of the Whitetail Park.

Fort Drubman

Pretty much all the Hurk Sr. has left after his divorce from Adelaide. It's from here he runs his senate campaign with the dubious help of his son, Hurk Jr.

MCA Mobile Lab

A mobile lab where the Montana Conservation Authority conducts research on the local flora and fauna.

Loresca Residence

Former residence of Jay Loresca, former Navy Seal. Rumor has it he joined the Whitetails, but it's certain that he’s long gone.

Whitetail Mountains Rail Bridge

A bridge connecting the Henbane River and the Whitetail Mountains. It's been out of use ever since the Copperhead Rail stopped running.

Elk Jaw Lodge

Part of the Whitetail Park the Elk Jaw Lodge was a nice place to relax near Silver Lake. Now... not so much.

Wolf’s Den

The secret bunker of the Whitetail Militia, home to Eli, their leader, as well as Tammy and Wheaty.

Oberlin Picnic Area

A nice place for a group to sit down, eat, and take in baseball game at the nearby diamond.

Osprey Cabin

One of the many cabins that visitors can rent at Whitetail Park. Named after birds of prey, thy are the perfect hiding places for Eli's Militia.

Kestrel Cabin

One of the handful of individual cabins available to rent at Whitetail Park.

Mansfield Lookout Tower

An abandoned fire watch tower overlooking the southern region of Whitetail Park.

Frank’s Cabin

A cabin owned by a recluse known as Lonely Frank. He seems to like it that way.

Dansky Cabin

This is where Dicky Dansky comes to write his books about Sasquatches, Bigfoot, and other cryptids.

Valley View Overlook

A place for visitors to stop and take in the view of the forest below.

Stone Ridge Chalet

High up on a rocky ridge is a Chalet where hunters and park visitors could come and warm up.

Silver Lake Parking Lot

A nice place to stop and take a refreshing dip in nearby Silver Lake.

Clagett Boathouse

A boathouse and docks maintained by the Old Sun Outfitters.

Salvage Camp

A small camp where a salvage company is attempting to recover items from the wreck of a sunken plane

Dylan’s Master Bait Shop

In case you needed some fishing pointers... Dylan will likely just point you somewhere else.

Langford Falls Parking Lot

A spot for visitors to pause and take in the beauty of the nearby Langford Falls.

Widow’s Creek

One of Skylar's favorite fishing spots. She'll probably tell you where it got its name.

Fowler’s Retreat

A not-so-secret place where Dave keeps all of his extra Cheeseburger merchandise.

South Park Entrance

The southern enterance to Whitetail Park. Once the gem of Hope County, it has seen better days.

[pepperstories]

Blooper Reel, Baby | Joseph Quinn | Best Friend Series

Warnings: No warnings. Badly written and will be rehashed once I get a series on the go at some point. Fluffy friendship lovings. This was inspired by the blooper reel that came out 700 years ago.

Please enjoy and remember to follow and reblog ❤️

The set was always lined with cast and crew during takes. On this occasion, Joseph stood with his co-star and friend of 18 years trying to figure out the best way to kiss in front of your colleagues.

Although this was nothing new to them, it was always hard to establish a true quality kiss with meaning when there was over 50 people looking on.

Joe stood across from you, his face set in a hard line and the same look mirrored in front of him.

“We’ve got this.” You grit through your teeth. Without the pair knowing, a lone camera was filming the interaction. The squabble of noise around you both as everyone rehearsed their own lines and you both prepared for yours.

Within a split second, Joe’s face turned to the camera and he grabbed you by the waist. He dipped you suddenly and started placed sloppy saliva filled kisses all over your face.

The howling laughter followed from both his beautiful friend and the co-stars around them as the notorious Duffer Brothers called for a restart. He brought you back to your starting point wiping saliva from your face and laughing as he winked directly into the camera.

✨✨✨

This scene was supposed to be harrowing. It was supposed to be gentle and loving. You held a dying Eddie in your arms as you prepared yours to cry.

The various make-up artists flittering about with your hair and Joe’s bloodstained teeth. The weight of his body heavy on your bent knee’s, you relaxed and tensed your shoulders to prepare yourself for a dramatic howl. He wiggled himself to get comfortable for the scene. The very moment he tells you that he loves you. The very moment he slips away. He had it down to a tee.

They had practiced during the script review that week and although the words on the page spoke truth, the pair were infamous for switching lines and improvising.

“I don’t think Eddie would say this.”

“She should be screaming, not silent crying.”

As the set cleared of all unnecessary folk, the pair focused in on their grief. They truly thought to themselves what it would feel like to really lose one another.


“QUIET ON SET.”

“Action!”

He spluttered his line so perfectly. His dark chocolate eyes staring into your blue ones. He watched the steady stream of hot tears run down your face, mingling with the crusted stage blood and dirt. You sobbed, your heaving chest hovering over his face. Your back aching slightly from holding the weight and heaving the dry sob.

“I love you.”

He spat slightly, the blood cradling around his mouth and chin.

Before you could even utter your line. Before you could improvise and go with it, you spat straight into his face when you sobbed out. A long string of spit from your mouth to the corner of his. An act that rendered Joseph completely useless as he looked horrified into your surprised face.

“You just spat in my mouth you dirty mink” He wiped the obvious foam of spit from the corner of his mouth as you brought your hands up to your own.

Both Duffer Brothers cutting the scene with a cackle and a “Cut!”

“I am so sorry.” Through the tears of laughter this time, Joseph rolled onto his front and mirrored his co-star. His knees bent under his arse as he watched your wide eyed laughter.

“We’ve exchanged spit so many times, a wee gob won’t do ye any harm.” You spat out as he shoved you playfully.

“That’s definitely one for the blooper reel.”

✨✨✨


The Duffer Brothers always made sure to have music on in between takes. The various artists that donned the speaker were just suggestions from the cast and crew.

Today was a particularly good day for "tunes”. The various songs from the late 80’s early 90’s played throughout the makeshift sets as the rolling camera caught all cast members dancing to this one particular song.

Shania Twain’s- That Don’t Impress Me Much.


The camera catching each cast member in their own routine. The main focus being Joseph and his best friend. Mouthing the words to each other as you both sipped your black coffee’s.

You swayed your hips and swished your hair about. This was a routine the cast and crew were familiar in. Impromptu dance routines and an easy relief of stress during the longer days.

Turning to the camera, you, the budding Ying to Josephs Yang turned in time for the camera to catch you singing the main line of the song: “That Don’t Impress Me Much.” And nudging your Ray Ban’s onto the bridge of your nose like it was part of the script.

✨✨✨

The boat scene was the hardest for all of them. You were always exhausted from being in the water and each time it came to the retake, you would heave a sigh. But today was a good day. Today was Joe Keery’s and Natalia’s diving scene where they were all to follow in. There was a ridiculous amount of goofiness on the boat, but you were ready for the water scenes to be over.

As they acted out the scene, each of them impeccably timed and choreographed, you waited your turn next to Joseph. Much to your dismay, the scene was ruined when a splash of water hit the main camera.

Pulling his cold and tired best friend to him, he used his body weight to rock the boat. His tight grip around your shoulders was enough to tell you that he was up to no good.

“Don’t even think about it.” You warned, a pointed finger a mere inch from his face as you looked back at him. His hot breath puffed in your ear as he laughed. You had worked together in so many productions and movies, you knew his tricks and he knew yours. It was clockwork shit.

Rocking harder, he lifted your body off the makeshift seat of the prop boat and pulled your full body to the side. A shriek and splash, as well as Josephs manic laughter, was echoing throughout the staged area.

A full lung full of water went straight into your mouth but sooner straight back out as she surfaced. The water barely at waist height as you splashed the jokester friend. He simply volleyed you over his shoulder in one quick move and threw you into the large pool of water again. A fair distance to chuck you, your wig sat half on and half off your head as you resurfaced for air. Again, the eruption of laughter could be heard throughout the set as that same lonesome camera caught the moments fans were unable to see.

✨✨✨

Thank you for reading my lovie doves. Please don't forget to support this little venture. Follow, reblog, comment and give me some lovings. If you have any ideas, please don't forget to message me!

[tamaharu]

its always so funny to read a story and then see what time period its "supposed to be set in" (whether from creator confirmation or common reader misinterpretation of something the creators said) bc wtf do you mean his dark materials is supposed to be in the mid-90s. what do you mean psychonauts takes place in the 80s. stop lying to me lyra is a early 1900s british street urchin and raz uses myspace!!!!!

[fandomshatepeopleofcolor]

Legally Blonde is another movie just like the Barbie movie I can't stand at all.I don't care how empowering or how revolutionary it is,I'll see it as white privilege and white feminism the movie.also I couldn't watch the movie for the second time because I found Elle Woods super annoying.

I actually have a soft spot for legally blonde because it came out when I was in high school and it was nice to see a stereotypically "dumb" girl get into a prestigious college for a master degree no less!!!

However even by the standards of the early 00's it was VERY WHITE. Like Reese Witherspoon doesn't seem like a bad celebrity but yeah that movie didn't even have token PoC given lines. Like ok I haven't seen it in years but I think the only poc were the asian ladies that Elle and her sorority sisters went to for mani/pedis. Oh and the latino pool boy that was fetishized. So yeah given that she supposed started out the story somewhere in Southern California (I guess LA? Maybe hollywood?) you'd expect her sorority sisters to have rushed at least a few token PoC.

I will say one thing tho. Like ok when I read Michelle Obama's Becoming I got a feel for what it was like for Black students in Princeton (Legally blonde mostly takes place in Harvard, specifically the law school) another Ivy League school. Now granted I can't remember if Michelle and Barack were there in the early 90's or the late 90s but I feel like we were definitely robbed of SOME students of color at an Ivy league school.

anyways yeah its shit.

mod ali

edit: Now I'm doubting myself and thinking Michelle and Barack were at Princeton in the late 80's... honestly I cannot do math.

[roipecheur]

So like. Further issues with Deathstroke Inc. I didn't really like the art style and the earlier part with TRUST was kind of boring and didn't really have any stakes, and got resolved way too quickly for how much they wanted to build it up. The entire concept of Deathstroke Inc is....ok, get he was possessed by the darkness or whatever, but playing with others isn't really something Slade does. He's a mercenary, not a mastermind. He wants to do his job, ideally alone or with maybe Wintergreen, and get paid. He doesn't want to command an army. Given that he was possessed or corrupted or what the fuck ever the darkness was supposed to do for at least half of it, how much was this Deathstroke run even about him as a character?

I'm also going to take issue with wanting to destroy the world and kill his children because that's....not what Slade does. Back in Forever Evil, he worked with the heroes to save the world because if the bad guys win forever, there's no need for someone in his line of work, and Slade needs his line of work to function. I kind of have to chalk this and Dark Crisis up to something pulling out the worst and most fucked up bits of Slade and corrupting them, including but not limited to making him cut his hair into a mohawk.

And Deathstroke Year 1. Minor gripe, Wintergreen was about 20 years older than Slade in preboot and had already gone grey the first time they met, and I'm not a fan of deaging him in reboot. Major gripe, there are so many more interesting ways to write Slade's layers of denial and self-justification for being Deathstroke and maintaining his family life, and writing him as a cold-blooded killer that never cared about his family, was annoyed by Grant being sad that he was going to leave on a 'hunting trip', and keeping his family as a 'good cover' is boring and lazy. If Slade didn't really love or care about his family, felt trapped with them, and primarily thought of his wife, son, and their unborn child as a 'good cover' by the end of year one, why would he care so much when Grant died trying to be like him? Year 1 Slade seems more likely to be annoyed with Grant for trying and summarily discard him. It kinda really fucks with his original story.

Slade's early years are better if it's him coming up with a convoluted justification of how being Deathstroke allows him to keep his family that he actually does love very much in his own fucked-up way. If he had to work a boring, regular job as a security guard, he'd go nuts, and he does feel cooped-up in suburbia, so being Deathstroke allows him to blow off some steam and be a better husband and dad when he is there. He's also making enough money to set his kids up for life, so he further justifies what he's doing by believing they'll be fine if something did happen to him, and that it's no different than if he were at war. And he thinks whatever precautions he has in place are good enough to protect his family, and he ignores any and all evidence to the contrary until Joey has to pay for it.

Still unbelievable to me how each new writer tries to have their super edgy take on Deathstroke, and none are as good at the original from the 80s/early 90s lmao.

[garthofshayeris]

How can all of Garth’s personality, relationships, and history became irrelevant to the current comics runs? What happened?

Great question! After Flashpoint happened, the Dc Universe reset. For a lot of comics, there were no major character or lore changes. However, the Aquaman comics got a major overhaul.

It’s important to note that Aquaman lore has changed over the years, but the changes were either slow or the kept much of the same characterization, but updated certain aspects. For example, although Death of a Prince takes place in the Bronze Age of comics, it was playing off dynamics already established in the Silver Age, and the story was tweaked slightly when the post-crisis reboot happened, so the events were still relevant in Volumes 4-6 (80s-early 2000s). The lore expanded to say, these major elements are still here! We have changed some things, and here they are! And this is how it effected what you might be familiar with, etc.

Then comes the New52. In order to make the comics easier for newcomers to read, about 90% of the characters and Atlantean history were removed completely from canon. This includes Garth, who was the longest-running humanoid supporting character!! (Topo the octopus is the longest-running returning character, and for the record they also got rid of him)

They re-did Arthur’s backstory (adapted to something similar to his Silver Age origins) and some characters, like Orm, were completely re-done as well to fit the new lore. They did not do this for Garth; in fact, every major element of his character that tied him to the story was removed. His kingdom I mentioned in that last ask? Gone. Atlan, the wizard who trained him? Gone (although they do re-use that name, the New52 character named Atlan is not Atlan from previous stories). The rumor about purple eyes? Actually not gone, but they did completely change what it meant and when we meet an entire community of purple-eyed Atlanteans, Garth is not among them. (Purple eyes have been an element to his character since his introduction, btw)

“But comicvine says Garth appeared in the New52!” I hear you cry. Technically true. But here’s a fun fact: they “teased” his return on the last page of one comics, and his design was so off from all previous versions that the fans did not know who he was supposed to be. Why? He was wearing a color Garth was never seen in, sporting a strange tattoo on the wrong side of his face (those lines aren’t a tattoo in pre-flashpoint btw…it’s a scar, that Atlan gave him) and because Garth had always, always, always been the child that Arthur adopted…the fact that he showed up as a fully formed adult with no connection to Arthur was so strange that even the Aquafans did not make the connection!!

This character, a mercenary who never spoke to Arthur, appeared a few more times before being quietly re-set in Rebirth.

Now, let’s recall that the comics removed all aspects of this character’s connection to the story, including the very fact that he was essentially Arthur’s adopted child. This is STILL TRUE in Rebirth. I cannot think of a time that Garth spoke directly to Arthur in any of the comics, but Mera said once that Arthur basically paid for Garth to go to Magic Underwater Wizard College, which is something that exists for some reason. Also he dropped out of Magic Underwater Wizard College because his girlfriend died, but we don’t know that woman’s name and he has literally never brought it up outside that single comics.

I want to say, I am not against changing backstories. Garth has had two and a half backstories since the 60s! But they grow and expand to fit the new world they live in. The writers took time and energy, they poured their hearts into making this new character appeal to their brave new world. But DC has not given Garth that same grace these past 15ish years. They had so, so many chances as well! They could have rewritten him in a way that was satisfying to his old fans. But they do not give a shit about Garth.

You see. DC wants to trick you. They want to say “everything is canon now” and not have to put in any effort. except my dears, the Aquaman comics are so complicated that they cannot exist at the same time. Because sure, maybe we can say Garth is no longer royal, because that kingdom his parents ruled no longer exists. But without that bloodline, why is he the most powerful Atlantean sorcerer? Did he never complete a highly emotional task of claiming his birthright, and accepting the death of Tula so he can heal his emotional wounds? Oh. Tula is alive? And now related to Orm? And they hardly know each other? Well, he just went to Magic College and he’s good for absolutely no reason at all. Is he still close with Arthur? I’m not sure. Arthur paid for college, but has never spoken to Garth. Garth is absent from all major life events in the Aquafamily. He has never met Arthur’s biological kid. He has no useful role inside a comic that he used to be an integral part of, his usual role has been split among others. So there goes his backstory. There go his emotional connections. Goodbye to the major emotional highs and lows as well. Goodbye to his personality traits, intentionally written to be played off of Arthur’s. Goodbye to any kind of role in the narrative; when you can replace his character with a nameless extra, is he really part of the story?

And when you remove all of that…what is there to like about this character, anyway?

[kaoarika]

I basically said "I dunno what to do about going downspiral of an old fandom", but I got curious and found this pic from one of the Sukedan anime DVD volumes for rental stores and I'm, like...

I never reached this part of the anime (this is around ep 60-smth?), but it's the infamous School Trip Rhapsody arc adaptation of the also infamous arc from the series. From my understanding (digging around old blogs, actually), the arc was butched (and VERY compressed) in the anime because of (also understandable) quite risky? and quite awkward scenes that makes me scratch my head of "were these steamy/fanservice scenes all really necessary? to be there in the manga itself? I understand the AWKWARDNESS of the whole situation, but... let's be real...???"

(yeah, this coming from the same WSJ magazine that published ecchi series like Video Girl Ai or I's from Katsura in the 90s or, To-Love-Ru in the 2000s... and the controversial? Ayakashi Triangle in 2020... heck, City Hunter by Hojo in the late 80s; I know Sukedan was never free of fanservice, but I mean, wow, this arc...)

So, I went to reread the whole arc and... okay, yeah. The Sket Dan trio totally are there, Yabasawa makes her appearance as well in some moments of the arc itself, even... but who is this girl? She is not Saaya and definitely isn't any of the other (quirky) girls from their class(es). So... who is this or what happened here? I don't think there is any other (random) girl from their class that fits a similar appearance... unless...

Was this girl supposed to be Yuuki Reiko?

(EDIT: turns out to be a friend of Yabasawa that I barely remember about :P -side, side characters I don't even remember for one reason or another- and in fact, I feel like this supports my possibility number one, as it's possible she is also one of the girls in the manga picture I mention below. Anyway, if you still want to read my overthinking post, go ahead, lol, even if it's been debunked? as the mystery is solved, lol. However, the conclusion I DO reach is: GOD, do I even miss this kind of home media releases? Two different covers for a single volume that contains 2 or 3 eps for a long series like this??? No, no, I don't.)

Please, don't go away, lol. Let me explain:

This is how Shinohara drew Reiko in one of the manga color chapters ALL the way back in 2012 (ch 200, I believe)?

And this is the random girl from the rental DVD cover:

They seem to share a hairstyle and a somewhat similar hair color that Reiko used in the anime (and I daresay, even similar color tones of clothes, from what I remember Reiko seemed to wear, which were kind of plain tones?). So, I'm wondering myself that something happened here. Three things, actually:

1) There's a part of this arc in the manga where "Himeko" is asked to take a pic with the girls from her class' group dormitory in the school trip, and I mean, the manga cover for this specific chapter (ch 138) with that photo is mostly composed of random girls from Himeko's class (plus Yabasawa).

(the quality doesn't make it justice, but that's quite early 2010s scanlations for you)

So I would understand if it's a random girl... (Yabasawa is there, too) however I feel it's just too out of place for a (rental) DVD cover to have a smth similar concept like this for a cover? I know the anime staff or the one(s) that made the llustrations were asked LOTS OF TIMES to remake some manga covers in the anime style (especially for both of the renta and retail DVD covers) , buuuut... Switch and Bossun are out of the equation in this manga picture (and yet they are in the cover). Am I that too pedantic? It's just... weird to me, I guess. I would have chosen Saaya (especially Saaya for what this arc ALSO entails for her, but she already had too many forced appearances in the anime at this point, so what gives) or Captain or any other of the quirky girls they are all friends with, you know? Not just a random one? Or heck, another concept for a cover that covers a similar idea of a picture of the trio with other ppl from their class (not just Yabasawa and a random girl whom I don't know who she is???)

2) Something got mixed in the artist's request from the anime staff in charge for home media releases and they used the settei model for Reiko as a reference and/or turns out they were asked to add a random girl instead because Reiko was not what they were asked for initially. I wouldn't blame them (the artist), tbh. Especially knowing how, *sigh* imagine doing over 90 different illustrations for the DVD releases in total (rental, retail with 'limited edition composing of TWO extra images for the box and the extra content). I mean. I MEAN. (And I'm pretty sure this was handled to different illustrators and not just ONE of them, but... ugh... you know? it's not exactly a walk in the park)

3) Maybe the anime staff did ask for Reiko to be on that cover, but they backtracked before the illustration was finished. She appears in that arc, afterall (although her interactions in the arc aren't TOO meaningful besides a few lines but, hey, it also explains why Yabasawa is in this illustration) but, the little I do remember seeing of screencaps at the time leaves too much to be desired about her appearance.

A personal conspirative hypothesis? that I still have all these years is that the anime staff, at a point after Reiko's "make over" ep, wanted to make her "scarier" and "uglier" than her manga counterpart, whom already was looking scary and ghostly-like, because biases, I freaking guess... and she specifically standing up to Switch's side (w/o bickering or not getting along) was... maybe ship teasing/inducing? (when it was clearly obvious whom THEY shipped him with... HUH, who said that?) Part of me wants to pick up the crumbs and be a little delulu, because I mean, the possibilities of this random girl originally being Reiko is just... too good to be true, I suppose. But this whole thought somewhat.. fits too much to be a coincidence, I guess? The appearance between them is similar (she is around that height if she isn't hunching, as well) and I imagine this would be how she would look like (or dress, even) if she wasn't drawn all ghostly or "plain" like. The girl in this "photograph" like cover being a random girl that wasn't heavily featured in the (manga) arc itself seems a little suspicious to me?

The thing, again, is that I don't have any further context from the anime adaptation of this arc and trying to look back into it is hard these days because this is an early 2010s anime and many ppl that were fans have moved on (blogs are abandoned, some are still available to look at) while newer watchers/readers are becoming lesser because they prefer to watch newer or more popular "content" (also, something about availability, I don't know if CR STILL has it... and definitely I will not be paying for Anime Onegai just for satiate my curiosity since I think? they got the (re)license of this anime for Latam in the past few years; I could try to find this specific anime arc and watch it myself through less legit ways, but I admit I am a bit lazy and new laptop stuff is...).

Why writing this now? Well... tbh, I know no one will care about this specific observation, and it is just me making it because I do find it curious and perhaps I'm just delusional about things. I just wanted to let it out there, because I do find it interesting and I find it a shame that there weren't more observational posts about the home media releases of this anime, especially because I find it interesting that the ED album cover that homages one of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' albums' cover is not the only homage the anime staff did to real stuff out there (tbf, this still being released in the "2-3 eps per single volume" home media release era, and costing over 5000 yen each and the JPN copyright stuff about not reproducing certain things unless crappy pics from early 2010s phones... social media accounts disappearing from the face of earth for a variety of reasons, etc...).

(also, I do find the retail DVD limited edition front covers kind of ugly, like, not all, but... lmao; some look a little sexualized for my liking and the ones from the second season that are head profiles from a certain angle are TRYING to get the whole concept for them, but MAN... do they TRY)

[lunawings]

Animaniacs in Concert, 2/17/24 in Bristol, CT

Or, the story of how I ran into Rob Paulsen and immediately threw up.

Not on him, thankfully.

Where to begin? From the beginning, I guess.

I talk a lot about Japanese voice actors on this blog and I have almost no thoughts about American anime dub voice actors (no offense, I just don't know their work). However, if you asked me my favorite American cartoon voice actor, it's Rob Paulsen. I knew his voice before I even knew he existed, and if you ask me, he's one of the most recognizable male voice actors in Saturday morning cartoons.

He's probably most known as being Yakko on Animaniacs, and "half the Ninja Turtles" as he puts it. ("Maybe if I live to 102 I can voice all of them!") I also personally really liked him in The Mask cartoon, I think it's some of his best work. (Even though he was doing Jim Carey, he kind of wasn't at the same time. He made it his own.) But even beyond his leading roles, he just seems to pop up all sorts of places, and it always makes my day when I recognize him as additional voices.

While Japanese voice actors are often young and excessively beautiful people you're supposed to swoon over, 80s/90s American cartoon voice actors aren't... quite... the same. And yet. I sorta do, in a weird way. I mean I've known Rob Paulsen's voice for as long as my brain has been making memories and that's a pretty huge impact on a person. A few years back, I stumbled upon a few videos of him on YouTube attending cons performing Yakko's World and such, and I just loved his personality and energy so much. So, I added seeing him perform someday to my mental list of goals to accomplish if I ever returned to the US.

Fast forward again to the 2020s, the Animaniacs revival comes out on Hulu (I don't care what anyone says I freakin loved it) and I hear he's touring again with Animaniacs in Concert. I looked up the dates and none of them were remotely near me. As I checked back one day, mourning the possible missed opportunity and debating how far I might go, a new show popped up in Bristol, CT. How random, I thought. I checked if it was doable for me, and it was! It wasn't feasible as a day trip, but still doable. And once I saw there was one FRONT ROW SEAT LEFT, the deal was sealed as I quickly bought the ticket and reserved a room at the only hotel I could find in the area, the Bristol Double Tree.

Fast forward to yesterday. I arrived in Bristol just after noon following an uber and FOUR different buses. I'd woken up way too early, I was hungry and tired, and not feeling too great. I decided food would be my first plan of action, and since I didn't quite understand how to order room service (the menu wasn't loading on my phone anyway) and there wasn't anything within walking distance, I decided to just head downstairs and eat at the hotel restaurant/bar.

As I was waiting for my impossible burger and fries, I decided to take off the Yakko's World hoodie I'd been wearing.

I bought it specifically to wear to the show, and I'd already spilled a little coffee on it this morning and didn't want to risk having to wash it again. So I tucked it behind me in the booth.

Shortly after that, another group walked in and sat at the table next to me. An older guy and some ladies. I wasn't paying much attention to them as I thought they were maybe a part of the wedding party I heard was at the hotel. My food came and I focused on that.

But then someone else walked in and joined them. Someone I very much DID recognize. "Oh there you are!" "Hi, I'm Rob!"

The next moment is kind of a blur so I'm not exactly sure whether I jumped a little or if I did the dramatic eyes widen slow turn, but I definitely had some kind of a visible reaction as I looked over to the table. It was then that I locked eyes with who at that moment I first realized was Maurice Lamarche, voice of Brain (from Pinky and the Brain) and many MANY Futurama characters (more than I realized as I learned later). He was the older man I mentioned earlier, and had been sitting there the entire time. And at that moment I thought perhaps he knew everything. (Both the fact that I recognized the new person who had just walked in, and the fact that I hadn't recognized Maurice himself until now.)

So I'm pretty sure I have at least mild prosopagnosia (face blindness) so it is hard for me to recognize people right away.

But there was something I could never fail to recognize, and that was the voice of Rob Paulsen, who was the person who had just walked into the room and joined the table with Maurice.

I'm not sure how they knew the women they were dining with, but they were all catching up, asking them if they were going to the show, etc. I listened a bit as Rob happily talked to them about the impact of the show and its fans. Such as how devoted fans would actually fly in to see them and how the average age of the audience was about 40 (hah ha... not yet but I'm getting there). He even mentioned Tress MacNeille at one point! Maurice was right in my view, but Rob was at an angle where I couldn't see him without turning my head but oh lord it was definitely him.

I had no idea what to do at this point. Do I say something? Do I not? Would it be terrible to just say hi and that I'm looking forward to the show??

I've been to a lot of events with voice actors in the past, especially in Japan, but I still just... cannot handle meeting famous people that I admire. Actually seeing them up close is intense enough, but actually TALKING to them? I don't know how anyone can do it.

I'm reminded of Amari in Idol Land PriPara, that episode where she meets Hibiki...

Yeah, basically me. For the people who visualize in their head while they are reading something, just replace whatever you imagine I look like with Amari and this story will fit very well.

All while this is all racing through my mind, I'm still shoveling french fries into my mouth while trying (and probably failing) to stay calm and act normal (even though I'm pretty sure Maurice is onto me) and I soon realize I've got a couple fries stuck in my throat (as often happens when I'm eating without paying attention, as I'm a very fast eater). I exaggerated a little in my previous post when I said I was choking, but it was hard to swallow and I realized I'd have to sneak off to the bathroom to deal with it without causing any more of a scene. I basically threw my credit card on the table and ran, though (which was dumb in hindsight, but I didn't want anyone to think I was dine-dashing).

In the end, after I came back, I decided to just quietly pay the bill and leave without saying anything, scrunching and hiding my Yakko hoodie the best I could. I didn't want to interrupt them during their private time, and for that reason I didn't try to take any photos or videos either. So I have no proof that this happened but it very much did.

And it made sense, I realized later. I already knew that the Double Tree in Bristol was literally the only hotel in the area, where else would they be!!?

After leaving the table I was so worked up I basically walked straight out of the hotel because I didn't know what else to do and headed to the Carosel Museum of New England where I killed at least two whole hours sitting on a bench looking at intricately carved 100+ year old wooden animals while nursing my exhaustion and caffeine cravings. (The museum isn't that big, I just literally did not know what else to do with myself.)

But I learned that most carousel horses are only decorated on the side that faces the customers. And since they were all hand-carved back then, the opposite side would often be carved by a less experienced carver in training or something. ISN'T THAT NEAT?

I thought that was neat.

Anyway.

Eventually I downed an energy drink I bought from a convenience store as I went on my way to the venue of the show.

I was still super early since I ran out of the hotel super early but there was already a crowd gathered outside. At first I didn't know this was the reason people had gathered, but the first 40 people to line up were eligible to sign up for a "meet-and-greet" with everyone after the show. And when I reached the front of the line, it was still open.

"Sure?" I said, not really fully understanding what I was signing up for. And so I headed inside.

The show opened with Yakko's Universe (SUCH A BEAUTIFUL SONG) and of course closed with Yakko's World as the finale. What came in between was quite random. Despite not being an actual cast member, the real star of the show was composer Randy Rogel. Rob of course voiced Yakko and his other characters, and Randy voiced... almost everyone else haha. Just using his own voice most of the time, but still. He sang as Dot a lot.

And it seemed like he picked the songs they played not necessarily by what songs were popular, but by what songs he and Rob had stories to talk about. For example, they did a bunch of songs from the failed show Histeria when Rob literally broke into tears (he was acting) while talking about how Randy had to actually, physically, go to a library to research the topics he was writing about back in those days. Randy also played an alternate version of the song LA DOT that had sat untouched in a folder for decades.

Rob's voice doesn't sound quite the same as it used to, as anyone who has seen the 2020 Animaniacs series would know, but he can still do it all! And considering he survived throat cancer, and came back to not only work again but sing live!? He sounds amazing!

Maurice Lamarche was also of course a part of the show, and although he only "sang" one song as Brain, his interactions in character as Brain with Rob as Pinky were probably the highlight of the whole show. (They did a whole "Who's on First" sketch talking about what countries to conquer, with Pinky misunderstanding "Hungary", "Turkey" and "Chili".)

Maurice also did a showcase of his voice, including so many other Animaniacs and Futurama characters I had no idea were him, not to mention frikkin Toucan Sam and the narrator of Lexus commercials.

The only thing that disappointed me a little about the show, was they didn't really do anything from the 2020 series, but I guess Randy wasn't as involved with the music in that. So, oh well.

I didn't take many photos/videos during the show, since I wasn't fully sure of the etiquette (still kinda have my Japan brain for these sort of things) and since I was in the front row I wanted to give them my full attention. I think there are plenty of videos online anyway, since at least one segment was one I'd already seen before.

So, after the show ended, people began to line up for the meet-and-greet, and it was then that I fully understood what I had gotten myself into.

Each of us would get about a minute to talk with them individually, get their signature, and get a picture if we wanted. I was really kicking myself for not bringing anything to sign! I really had no idea it would actually be an option! (In the days leading up to the show I had been looking at Rob's website where I noticed he normally charges $60 for an autograph, so I didn't think he would do it for free.)

But more importantly, I realized I was going to have to actually face them. TALK TO THEM. The exact thing I had run away from earlier in the day.

And again, I considered just running away. But I had taken a spot on that list. A spot that could have gone to someone else and it was too late to give away now. So, I told myself, I had to see this through. No matter what.

As the line inched closer I panicked over whether they would recognize me from the hotel or not as I rehearsed in my head over and over again all the things I could say. I was honestly juggling between two or three entire scripts by the time it was finally my turn and when realized... after all that...

I did not need to say anything.

Rob saw my hoodie ("It's me!") so he knew I was there for him, and he knew I was nervous. So he did all the talking. (After all, that is his job. Literally!) He took my hand and complimented my hoodie, my hair, and everything. He said so many nice things about me (I even got a "Hellooooo nurse!") and even broke the ice by introducing me to "his friend the Brain" so I got to shake hands with Maurice as well. (I STILL THINK HE KNEW. So I felt a little awkward then but other than that) it was just such a wonderful interaction. Rob was so nice and kind and I got the impression he really, really cares about his fans.

So I missed out on the autograph, but I did get a picture, and I left the entire experience feeling so warm and fuzzy and oddly complete. Childhood dream achieved.

It took me another four busses and an uber to get home today (I left around 8am, walked into my door after 4...) but it was all very worth it.

I'm mostly at peace with how things turned out, but if I ever get the chance to see them again, at a Comicon or whatever, I'll be sure to bring a Futurama DVD boxset for Maurice to sign and maybe try to acquire an old Animanics or Mask the Animated Series VHS for Rob!

You know, it's pretty ridiculous how easy it is to meet and get signatures from famous voice actors in this country. That almost never happens in Japan. I mean, I'm planning to go to an actual Love Live concert in Japan next month, and here I am oddly depressed I can't fly out to Seattle to see Chiemi and Coco at Sakura-con instead because I might get to actually meet MEET them there haha.

Even though it would be another disaster if I actually did.

Hahah...

[fullgrownpalace]

Hi! I just wanted to say I adore the way you draw Ma'am! She's really pretty in your style ^^

Question wise though, do you have any headcanons or anything like that for her or any of the other characters?

I wish I hadn’t accidentally privately responded to a previous question about my headcanons for her, because it was a LONG LIST, but I’ll try and list a few!

This’ll be long so it’s all shoved under the cut, minus some more private HC’s-

Full Grown/Ma’am

• She’s a huge sweets fan, and once Big Deal gets better at cooking and baking, she has a habit of stealing away muffins or cookies, much to the exasperation and chitterings of him.

• I give her battle scars beneath her suit!

• She has some sort of connection to Reggie which royally pisses her off for A WHILE, especially as Endless tries to push for their friendship. In comes my mentor!AU where a greater looming evil forces them to call a truce and they eventually become like family.

• She’s the original leader/Queen of Endless before Bad Things happened and shunted her into the volcanic stasis until Reggie revives her.

• She’s the original creation of Endless. She was made by a very, very lonely little girl who desperately needed a friend and was scared of growing up, who got whisked away to Endless at its most baby state. Full Grown bloomed into life just about the same age as the girl who created her, and she ages alongside her until the girl grows away from Endless and finally stops coming to Endless. Ma’am stops aging from there.

• She likes wrestling, obviously, but she also likes hockey. She likes the fighting lol

• Big Deal’s affections scare her and make her anxious, she’s scared of niceness and affection in *general*, so she acts up, acts out, lashing out and thrashing and acting petulant in her denial to try and create distance. It doesn’t work.

• She can play a few musical instruments! Namely the piano and guitar, but a few others too.

• She can speak a few different languages, mostly because one of my favorite Matt Berry songs has French in it and I said she can.

• Her music tastes are very wide and varying but she favors acid jazz, psychedelic rock, and hypno-pop.

• Ma’am is OLD, lmao. She clearly is themed around astro-retro futurism of the 50s and 60s, between her house, her theme song, her aesthetic, so I like to put the height of her leadership around those eras.

• She /likes/ entertaining guests. Beneath all her bristle and coldness and axe-crazy mania, when she’s not putting out her icy, angry exterior, she *likes* having guests and being able to entertain. We see her even say that she likes having guests when Brown Roger comes around (poor Brown Roger lol)

• She likes roller skating

• She’s got a closet full of unique clothes, but after Bad Things and her stasis in the volcano, she sticks to wearing her Endless suit because her clothes feel too personal and vulnerable for a long time.

• She’s a hopeless romantic at heart, though terribly scorned, so she hides it beneath briars and thorns and chaos. She loves chick flicks and romance novels and she values loyalty and respect.

• Her and modern technology are Not Friends. Her range in technology goes up until the late 80s/early 90s, and I KNOW the show is technically supposed to take place in that era but that completely bypassed me back in 2019 when I started making my AUs, which take place 2015 and above, so modern technology makes her curse and sneer and growl in frustration.

• She just really likes food. Big Deal has to learn fast how to cook and bake properly for her because she gets very cranky when she’s hungry and she eats A Lot.

• She’s like a giant lizard cat. She’s very bendy and flexible, likes climbing trees and crawling around searching for shiny things, and she likes basking under the sun, even if she complains about being around others the whole time (she’ll also grab Big Deal and curl around him because he’s a little furnace, much to his flustered-ness)

• She’s genderfluid and queer. She doesn’t care about earth terms, she’s a shapeshifting alien queen in a different dimension, human customs and opinions don’t really matter when it comes to who *she* is.

• She and Big Deal manage to cross over onto earth at some point and she creates earth human forms for them.

• I technically have a full name for her but thatsss a bit private and will only be revealed if I talk to you for a while hdhfjd

I have a lot more but for the sake of saving time, I just have those for now for her.

Reggie

• CHAOS GIRL- she maintains her chaotic, bright, colorful nature even into adulthood. I really like focusing on her and her friends growing up into young adults because like.. self projection and also because this show is *about* growing up, and it’s SO interesting exploring that facet and seeing how their personalities, ESPECIALLY Reggie’s, grow and flux, yet how they still stay true to themselves.

• She /can/ sing a lil bit but it’s one of the few things she’s very shy about, between bullying and befriending people like Todd and Esther, and eventually Gwen, who are all so musically oriented, so she kinda just.. hides that she can kinda sing by being so overly dramatic about *badly* singing.

• She grows a steady mentorship/apprentice dynamic with Full Grown (though it depends on AU for how old she is when that mentorship starts, for my main one, she’s almost 13, for a few of my others, she’s older teens) who eventually becomes a like a very dear family member to her

• She’s a sporty girl when she hits her teens. She’s got a LOT of energy and frustration to expel and she winds up enrolling in volleyball, hockey, and rollerderby throughout her teen years to help her adrenaline junkie life and it helps with the frustrations of Having To Grow Up.

• She keeps her tooth gap, she never gets it corrected, and she’s got a very crooked and mischievous smile that lasts her whole life.

• She’s COVERED in freckles.

• She’s very shy around Conelly for a WHILE, they don’t even start dating til Reggie’s like 16.

• She’s actually very good with science, it just takes Ma’am’s mentorship to help her realize that ‘hey she actually sometimes likes learning’ and she likes astronomy, astro-physics, physics, and chemistry (she finds interest when she’s being taught magic and finds out there’s a lot of science behind potions and magic)

• She’s forever a foodie, always munching and eating SOMETHING. She’s a frequent food thief and steals snacks from Mack and Beefhouse, from Full Grown and Big Deal, and from her friends.

• She’s the championed Knight of Endless, in all essential aspects. She undergoes weapons training from Full Grown when she hits adulthood due to other threats on Endless.

• She LIKES dressing up, she LIKES dresses sometimes, she just doesn’t like dressing up the way Judy wants her to, and she doesn’t like feeling clumsy and doesn’t like feeling like she’s just playing dress up to be someone she’s not (unless it’s cosplay, she gets her friends into cosplaying with her).

• Most of her wardrobe I draw her in comes directly from my closet or from my style.

• She gets rebellious with her friends when they’re 16/17 and Todd’s older brother takes them to get ear piercings together, so she’s got two lobe piercings and industrial piercings on both ears. When she’s older, she also has a tongue piercing, because she thought it was Cool™️ and she likes to stim with it.

• In my main mentor!AU, she chops all her hair off to her shoulders directly after her 18th birthday in a fit of frustration and rage and panic. Mood.

• She also puts colored streaks in her choppy hair when she’s older, regardless of shortness or longness, she’s got green, pink, and blue streaks randomly smattered through her hair.

• She’s got severe ADHD and is possibly autistic

• She ALSO likes wrestling, so her and Full Grown cheer and snicker and snort over wrestling.

• She maintains her artistry as she grows and is quite successful with her art on the occasion. She’s the designer for Dustin’s podcast’s merch, Space Draculas. His podcast focuses on mythological legends, paranormal encounters, and supernatural beings with Todd’s older brother a few friends. Any pics of Reggie I draw wearing an alien with fangs is for this podcast of his.

• She and Judy mend their bonds over the years, and Judy is definitely the Team Mom for all her friends.

• Reggie’s first car is a Volkswagen Beetle that’s got a yellow body, but the hood, front two doors, and trunk are all different colors. The car is littered with car stickers and it has pins all in the roof from the inside, and she’s got worm on the strings tied to the rear view mirror.

• She ends up being a very good babysitter, it’s her job as a teenager, so she winds up being very good with kids.

• She curbs her dirty, messy habits as she grows older, but sometimessss she still gets down and dirty on Endless, she’s got no problems with getting muddy and dirty, covered in paint, sticky with sweat and sand, and she has to be reminded that showers are REQUIRED /more/ than twice a week.

• Full Grown regularly chews her out because she tries to enter the witch’s home with her sandy boots on. That’s like.. a YEARS long habit.

• She winds up being a rather well skilled magic user

Big Deal

• Learns much of his cooking skills from infomercials after Ma’am falls asleep, alongside with tentatively befriending Mack and Beefhouse and learning from them. They reach out to him first, with much grace and forgiveness, one day when he’s searching for recipe ingredients and they end up being well friends to him, and eventually, Ma’am as well. (She’s much more resilient and hesitant to befriend the others after everything and many of them are just as hesitant of her but Reggie growing under her mentorship helps)

• He whacks Reggie in exasperation when she tries to steal food.

• He was made by Endless to protect his Ma’am and be a tiny little plush dragon to her.

• He purrs when he’s comfortable and happy, and so does Full Grown (though she represses it for a very long time). He also trills and chitters and chirps in feral little noises to her and she’ll make noises back.

• he looks smooth and round but he’s made up of really smooth feathers and he’ll puff up and flair out in high emotions or shock.

• He’s SO little and she’s SO big. My Ma’am is around 7’0” and he’s like.. thigh/butt level to her.

• He’s the first being to see her cry after her revival from the volcano, regardless of my AU and how long it takes for her to finally cry, he’s always the first one to see her cry.

• He’s a very enthusiastic learner and absorbs knowledge like a sponge, and he loves listening to his Ma’am talk so he’s willing to sit and listen and learn until he’s falling asleep.

• He does NOT like horror movies. He does not care for wrestling, or hockey, it all makes him cringe and fret so much, but he LOVES fantasy, adventure, romance, and music, so Full Grown introduces him to musicals and romcoms.

• he LOVES entwining his tail with his Ma’am’s tail, which, for a long time, is a very rare thing, but it grows more constant as time passes.

• he’s got little padded pawed hands! Tiny hands with little heart shaped paw pads!

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Okay these are all I can think of tonight but I WILL update this as I think of more, or feel free to message again with individual characters!